By SPENCER BATES
SALAMANCA — The Salamanca baseball team is perfect no longer after running into a stern test at home against Dunkirk.
The Warriors started their season on an immaculate 7-0 run, but after a number of self-induced mistakes — including fielding errors and baserunning blunders — that led to the eventual 10-1 loss, coach Greg Herrick noted his team got away from what had got them as far as they did without a blemish to their name.
“I think so far this season, we’ve had a clear identity. We did a good job of building that, but tonight, we didn’t hit on any of it,” Herrick said. “In base running, we made two crucial errors, it took us out of potential big innings when the game was still 2-1. We dropped a couple fly balls that should have been outs, booted balls in the infield, walked too many people. Those are all things that we had taken control of early in the season, and it got away from us. We had traffic on the bases, didn’t field the ball the way you were supposed to, and then we only had five hits, so when we got guys on … we just didn’t execute.”
And from the jump, the Marauders laid down the gauntlet, connecting for two hits, seeing another batter reach on an error and scoring a run in the top of the first frame. A challenge that the Warriors were unable to respond to, as they got very little going at the plate over the first three innings. In fact, Kruz Coustenis, who led Salamanca with a 2-for-3 performance, tacking on an RBI in the process, recorded the only hit for the hosts through the first three frames.
And in that time, Dunkirk doubled their early advantage.
However, putting bat to ball was not the issue for Salamanca as its batters only recorded five strikeouts on the night. Instead, the problem they faced on offense was seeing the ball hit the turf and not the leather of a Dunkirk glove.
“I think the top part of our order are really putting together good at bats, we just got to get some more consistency through the lineup,” Herrick said. “The best lineups are competitive one through nine. So, we’re still working on that. I thought the top did their job, we just didn’t get the consistency all the way through the lineup. … (Dunkirk’s pitcher) only walked one guy, and whether that’s us not working hard enough in the box or not, I’m going to tip my cap to him. He threw strikes and was consistent and went the whole distance.”
Salamanca’s Cory Holleran (1) connects on a pitch against Dunkirk. (Spencer Bates)
The Warriors did manage to generate some offense at a more consistent rate in the latter innings of the affair, cutting the Marauders’ advantage to just one in the fourth inning. And while that run was immediately restored and compounded upon in the top of the fifth inning by the visitors, Salamanca entered the final frame with a chance only down three runs.
Unfortunately for the hosts, their pitching wound up running off the rails in the final frame, leading to Dunkirk adding six more runs that all but put the game to bed.
But still, the fact that his team had a chance at the win entering the final frame, after all the mistakes they had made on the day, left Herrick pleased.
“We’ve asked (our players) to be mentally tough, and I thought they continued to fight,” Herrick said. “I really believed that we were going to come back and make it interesting because we had good at-bats the second time through on their pitcher. … But that third time (through the order) is the one that we took ourselves out of it. I liked the at-bats, we just had some balls hit hard right at people, and that’s part of the game. That’s what I told them, ‘you don’t always get the fruit of your labor,’ but I think that they showed a lot of fight, and I was pleased at the end.”
And while the loss was a hefty one and the first of the season for the Warriors, Herrick was quick to note that it was not due to his team losing track of their goals of the season entirely. Instead, he cited it was just a matter of the mistakes they made on the day condemning them and that he is ‘more excited’ than ever to start fixing the issues that have now been exposed.
“I think the tendency is to call it complacency when you start 7-0 and when you don’t look the part through the whole game,” Herrick said. “But I’m not sure it was that. I just think that we made mistakes that are correctable. … I’m kind of excited about going back and trying to correct everything that we did wrong tonight. I think it’s a great opportunity. It’s their first sense of adversity this year, and I told them, ‘I think I’m more excited about this game coming up tomorrow than I have been at any point this season.’”
Salamanca will have the chance to get their revenge on Dunkirk immediately as they hit the road to face the Marauders on April 25, with first pitch slated for 5 p.m.
AT SALAMANCA
Dunkirk 101 020 6 10 10 1
Salamanca 000 100 0 1 5 4
Dunk: Lemanski (5 SO, 1 BB) and Valentine
Sala: Herrick (2 SO, 6 BB), Farnum (3 SO, 0 BB), Coustenis (0 SO, 0 BB) and Bradley
